Why are leaves colorful?

Leaf is One of the organs of plants that grow from the stem. Usually green and mainly serves as a capture energy from sunlight via photosyntesis on a leaf green color comes from chlorophyll in the leaves.

Chlorophyll is the pigment compounds that play a role in selecting the wavelength of light energy captured in photosyntesis.

Actually leaves also have other pigments such as Carotenoids (orange), Xantofil (yellow), and Anthocyanins (red, blue, or purple, depending on the degree of acidity). Older leaves lose chlorophyll so that the color changed to yellow or red can be seen clearly in the autumn leaves.

Carotene is an orange photosynthetic pigment important in photosynthesis. This substance is formed orange in carrots and many other fruits and vegetables. He plays a role in photosynthesis by channeling the light energy that he absorbed into chlorophyll.

Anthocyanins  isa water soluble pigment that is naturally present in various plant species.  As the name implies, this is the pigment that gives color to the flowers, fruits, and leaves of green plants. These pigments have been widely

used as natural dyes in various food products and other applications.

 

when summer is over, the color of the leaves of trees in Europe are no longer green, but yellow or even red. Because, changes in temperature and shift the distribution of the light spectrum skies, and the chlorophyll became no longer efficient. As a result, the chlorophyll molecule is outlined and the types of molecules, other pigment, the red and yellow, becoming more visible panhandle. So, colorful leaves caused by a layer of pigment in the leaves of different,